Magnum Photos is pleased to announce the first Magnum workshops in Bard, Aosta Valley, Italy, as part of the new Magnum Contact Sheets exhibition, which will be presented at the Forte di Bard from June 21st to November 10th before touring worldwide.

Magnum Contact Sheets exhibition

Magnum Contact Sheets will dive into the prolific archive of Magnum to illustrate the importance of the contact sheet as the main source of reference for the agency’s editors. The exhibit will display approximately 70 contact sheets accompanied by their respective final images. The presentation will feature the works of pioneers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Rene Burri, Philippe Halsman and Elliott Erwitt, as well as modern greats, including Jim Goldberg, Alec Soth, Paolo Pellegrin and Trent Parke.

The Magnum Workshops at the Forte di Bard

The Forte di Bard and surrounding area, located 60km from Turin, has become an impressive cultural hub of the Western Alps. The fortified complex, built in the 19th century by the House of Savoy on a rocky prominence above the city of Bard, has been completely restored as the Museum of the Alps, and features multiple exhibitions, galleries, and works by many internationally renowned artists.

The two workshops will provide selected students with a rigorous two-day practical photography course, led by Magnum veterans Mark Power and Jérôme Sessini. For budding photographers, it is a tremendous opportunity to become engrossed into the world of Magnum Photos.

The workshops are designed for students with an established understanding of photographic practice. Each Magnum photographer will lead his group through an intensive program of reviews, group critiques, mentoring, editing sessions and the opportunity to learn amongst peers.

Participants will spend the sessions alongside their selected photographer, improving their own visual language and skillset, while learning the expertise required to compete in a changing marketplace. Additionally, the workshop will be accompanied by a guided visit to the Magnum Contact Sheets exhibition with the Magnum photographers. Overall, these workshops will help every student discover his or her own photographic identity, within the intimate and beautiful confines of the Forte di Bard.

Conditions

The workshops will accept 15 students each, and will take place from September 21st to 22nd 2013.

Workshop participants should show a good level of photographic aptitude. Candidates will be expected to arrive comfortable with their equipment and with a portfolio of 20 images maximum. Photographers will be subject to online applications.

Deadline for application: September 15th, 2013.

Tuition fees

The tuition for the Magnum Workshop is 450€. The fees include two meals and one night for a single person in a shared room at the Hotel Stendhal – village Bard – Piazza del Municipio. Participants can upgrade to a single room for an additional EUR 15. This does not include photo developing, post-production and travel*.*A list of travel facilities will be provided for successful applicants.

Magnum Photos reserves the right to change or alter the program advertised.- If a participant decides to cancel for whatever reason, it must be confirmed in writing:. Magnum Photos will reimburse all the registration costs except for €100 administrative fee, if the participant informs Magnum Photos of cancellation at least 3 weeks before the first day of the workshop. Beyond this time limit, Magnum Photos will charge the following:. 50% of the cost if cancelled between 6 and 20 days before the workshop commences.. 100% of the cost if cancelled less than 5 days before the workshop commences.. All workshops that are commenced but not completed through the fault of either the contractor/or participant need to be paid in full.- Magnum Photos is not responsible for reimbursement of travel expenses in case a workshop is cancelled. We recommend that you buy refundable air tickets and/or travel insurance.

The first deadline for acceptance is September 15th, and qualified applicants will be selected through a combination of the merit of their work and their personal statement, and the order of their application's receipt. All applications received after September 15th will be reviewed, space permitting.

Jérôme Sessini built a passion for photography after discovering documentary photography through books shown by a friend, a photographer. He initiates his own practice, shooting people, landscapes and daily lives of those around his native Eastern France (with Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Mark Cohen, in mind).

In 1998, Sessini arrived in Paris, where Gamma photo agency gave him the opportunity to cover the ongoing conflict in Kosovo, despite not having studied photojournalism.

Since, he has covered numerous international current events, such as: Palestine, Iraq (from 2003 to 2008), Aristide’s fall in Haiti (2004), the conquest of Mogadishu by the Islamic militias, and the war in Lebanon (2006).

Sessini’s work is internationally renowned, and prestigious newspapers and magazines such as Newsweek, Stern, Paris-Match, Le Monde, and the Wall Street Journal publish him.

His photography has been exhibited at the Visa Photo Festival in Perpignan, the Rencontres d’Arles, the Bibliothèque nationale François-Mitterrand, and the French Ministry of Culture.

In 2008, he started the project, “So Far From God, Too Close From the U.S.,” in which he explores the drug cartels war in Mexico. This ongoing project has already been awarded with the F-Award and a Getty Grant.

From this direct confrontation with violence, Sessini has recognized a pattern that lies at the heart of his work, and says, “Ordinary fellows are always those losing, either it being in Iraq, Mexico or France.”

Evolving within an uncertain balance of cynical realism and straight anger, Sessini is careful with the “rightness” of his photographic work. He rejects idealism and otherworldliness, which do not take in account some pieces of reality.

Mark Power

British, b. 1959

As a child, Mark Power discovered his father's homemade enlarger in the family attic—a contraption consisting of an upturned flowerpot, a domestic light bulb and a simple camera lens.

His interest in photography probably began at this pivotal moment, although he later chose to study painting and drawing instead. He 'became a photographer' (somewhat accidentally) in 1983, and worked in the editorial and charity markets for nearly ten years b before he began teaching in 1992 (Power is currently the Professor of Photography at the University of Brighton).

This move coincided with a shift towards long-term, self-initiated projects, which now sit comfortably alongside a number of large-scale commissions in the industrial sector.

Power's work has been seen in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the world and is in several public and private collections. He has published six books: 'The Shipping Forecast' (1996), 'Superstructure' (2000), 'The Treasury Project' (2002), '26 Different Endings' (2007), 'The Sound of Two Songs' (2010) and 'Mass' (2013). Mark Power joined Magnum Photos in 2002.

Magnum Photos is a photographic cooperative of great diversity and distinction owned by its photographer members. With powerful individual vision, Magnum photographers chronicle the world and interpret its peoples, events, issues and personalities.